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Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov
About museum
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was a Soviet military commander. Marshal of the Soviet Union (1955). Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1944, 1945). Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was born on 12 February 1900 in the village of Serebryanye Prudy in the Tula Governorate into a peasant family. At the age of twelve he went to Petrograd, where he worked as an apprentice in a spur workshop. In 1917 he volunteered for the front and became a cabin boy in the Kronstadt training mine detachment. In 1918 he became a cadet at the Moscow military-instructor courses of the RKKA and took part in suppressing the Left SR uprising.
During the Civil War Chuikov rose from assistant company commander to commander of a rifle regiment. He fought on the Eastern, Southern and Western fronts, was wounded four times and was twice awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After the Civil War he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy, completed courses in mechanization and motorization, and also studied at the Oriental Faculty. From 1940 to 1942 he served as a military attaché to Chiang Kai-shek, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army.
During the Great Patriotic War Vasily Ivanovich commanded the 62nd Army, which heroically defended Stalingrad for six months. For this feat the army was granted Guards status, and Chuikov led it until the end of the war. He was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war he held high state positions: Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Ground Forces and head of the Civil Defense of the USSR. Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov died on 18 March 1982 and, according to his will, was buried in Volgograd at the foot of the "Motherland Calls" monument.
Date of birth
31 January 1900
Date of death
18 March 1982
Occupation
Military